Three ospreys from southeast Michigan reach Cuba, Venezuela and Florida in tracked flight south

Three young osprey from southeast Michigan were tagged with satellite transmitters in August and September to track their flights south. They have reached Florida, Cuba and Venezuela. The osprey shown above is an unrelated adult male photographed last year in Big Rapids, Mich.
(Chris Clark | MLive files)

DETROIT, MI -- A trio of young osprey from southeast Michigan being tracked in their flights south have reached Florida, Cuba and Venezuela, according to the group Osprey Watch.

The group, along with the state Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, tagged three osprey chicks with satellite transmitters to study migration patters.

A male named Monroe Spark from the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge has reached Cuba.

Another named Independence from Kensington Metropark was last reported to be in Venezuela after traveling through Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and Colombia.

The third, Leroy, from Pinckney, appears to like being in the U.S. and has hung around Miami.

"(Leroy) has already given me heart failure while visiting Miami International Airport a couple of times and hovering over the Dolphin Expressway while in the area," wrote Barb Jensen of Osprey Watch in her last log entry on the bird's journey. "How he escaped unscathed from both locations is a miracle. Looks like maybe he took in a round or two of golf at Doral while in South Florida."